One Death, Many Echoes
by RegulusBlackIsAHero
Summary: When Harry goes into the Forbidden Forest with every intent to die, Hagrid is desperate and tries to save him. It has some unforeseen results and sends Harry and those brought back by the Resurrection Stone into a new dimension. The new dimension holds many secrets. Why does no one know Harry? Why is no one scared of Voldemort, but they're scared of his predecessor?
1. Protego

Harry Potter stood in the Forbidden Forest, his hands clutching the Resurrection stone as if it was a life-line. His parents, Sirius, Remus… all of the, stood before him. He'd missed them so badly.

They were helping him. Not in a physical; no one could do that now.

They were helping him collect his nerve together. It was time for him to sacrifice himself for the light. He had to die for them – well, not exactly for them, but for all those they left behind when they died. Harry was ready to sacrifice himself for them. He had to.

They deserved to live. And sure, Hermione and Ron would miss him, but in the end, the lives of many were more important than his own. Harry looked up at this mother – Merlin, she was beautiful. Her red hair – in the same style as the day she died – cascaded down her shoulders.

In every fiction book (which wasn't a lot) Harry had ever read, the girls were never perfect. They were always almost perfect, but their nose was too long, or they had a crooked tooth, or they were too tall. There was never a perfect girl. Perhaps the writers of those books thought that made the characters more believable.

If that was true, then Lily Potter would seem unbelievable to them. There wasn't a flaw on her skin. Her eyes were bright green – like his, but they had a shine that his didn't. Her red hair – that looked so much like Ginny's – was wavy and long. Lily's smile was bright, and it seemed to shine in the darkness. He longed to let her pull him into a hug, but there would be time for that after he was…

dead.

She was perfection, and Harry could feel something inside of him (excitement?) for when he would get to join her.

His father, on the other hand, was rumpled and crooked. Even his glasses were lopsided. Although, that didn't take away from his overall appearance. No, instead that reminded him of Arthur Weasley. Mr. Weasley was the most fatherly person he had ever met. It seemed right that his dad gave off the same ruffled exterior.

James was also smiling.

Sirius was nearly as ruffled as James, but he was so different than Harry had ever seen him. Gone was the hint of darkness – of sadness – that surrounded him. Harry had known that Sirius never truly let go his guilt of when his parents died – when he had 'abandoned' Harry. This Sirius had an easy smile that, while it was serious, it wasn't sad.

And to Harry, that was nearly a miracle.

Lupin was different, too. He was much less shabby, of course. He also was smiling, but unlike when he was alive, his smile did hold a tinge of sadness in it.

He was dead. That wasn't why he was upset, though. He'd been reunited with his friends.

Lupin had left his son, Teddy, behind. And he hated himself for that. But there was nothing he could do.

Harry felt the stone once more in his hand. It scratched his thumb, the sharp edge running under it as he caressed the link to his parents.

Then, before he could stop himself, he dropped it. The images of those who'd already died were gone, but Harry knew they were still there. He knew it because the Dementors weren't coming. They were still protecting him, like his mum and dad had in his fourth year.

Harry, feeling numb, broken, withdrawn, walked on forward. Outside, he was cold and silent.

On the inside, he was screaming.

He was scared. It was stupid to not admit it. As a boy of seventeen years, he didn't want to die.

And here he was… walking towards death.

Harry found that his legs wouldn't obey him anymore. They kept walking, even thought every bone – every fiber – in him was screaming for them not to. Perhaps they understood that he had to more than his brain.

His heart knew it.

Harry could hear the Death Eaters before he could see them. For a moment, he had forgotten that he was wearing his invisibility cloak and tried to scramble behind a tree – realizing too late that he wanted them to see him anyway.

"No sign of him, my Lord," a Death Eater said. Harry recognized him as Dolohav. Bellatrix breathed something to Voldemort, but Harry found that he couldn't hear anything over the pounding in his own ears.

"I thought he would come. I expected him to come."

"I was, it seems," Voldemort continued. "Mistaken."

Harry swallowed convulsively. He was trembling; though, he tried his best to quell it.

"You weren't."

Harry's voice was as loud in the deadly silence as he'd hoped. It also held no hint of his fear. Good. He'd expected it to come out stuttering and scared. It was a nice surprise for something to actually go his way. Glancing at Nagini, he knew that destroying the Horcruxes hadn't worked either.

There was still one left.

Harry ripped the cloak off of him, his fingers locking and clumsy. They were coating in a cold sweat; though, he didn't feel cold. It was probably because of the spirits that surrounded him with love and warmth and bravery.

"HARRY! NO!" a voice yelled. Harry turned to see Hagrid. Hagrid was trussed to a tree. He struggled with all of his might, but he couldn't escape. The most he could do was raise a hand – one giant, callused hand – and point it towards him.

"NO! NO HARRY! WHAT'RE YEH-"

"Quiet!" Rowle hissed, and he silenced Hagrid. Harry wished he could tell Hagrid it was okay, but it wasn't, and he knew it.

"Harry Potter," Voldemort breathed. "The Boy-Who-Lived." He said Harry's name almost as a caress as he raised his wand. There was a moment of silence before multiple things occurred at once.

In a second, Voldemort screamed something, and a green light emerged from his wand.

However, at the same moment, Hagrid raised a hand and, pointing it at Harry, he screamed, breaking Rowle's spell,

"PROTEGO!"

In all honesty, it shouldn't have done anything. Not only was Hagrid wandless (and not allowed to use magic,) he was also trying to block an Unforgivable, which was impossible by even the strongest wizard.

Still though, a gush of white light spilled out of his wand. It wasn't the normal shield charm. Instead, it flew at Harry like a large rope.

Harry was blinding by the bright flashing as it surrounded him in a four metre circle. It was spinning, too fast to follow with one's eyes. As it spun, Harry could make out four shadows. The light seemed to make them grow clearer as the world outside the circle melted away.

The ring of light began to close in. It enveloped the first shadow, and the figure disappeared.

The circle was now only 3 metres.

It enveloped two more. Harry could see a slash of red from the remaining figure. Surely, it wasn't his mother?

She shouldn't have been visible to him…

The circle enveloped her.

Finally, it was only centimetres away from touching him. Harry had one moment to look up and see the green light – Merlin, had the circle enveloped the others in such little time? – still closing in.

Then the light touched him, and everything went black.

Seeing his enemy gone, Lord Voldemort roared with anger and spun around, the Elder Wand still clenched in his hand.

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**Hey, guys! I finally decided which story to do. That's the last time I ask for your opinions… I felt bad not listening to everyone! Although, most people told me to write both… *grumbles.***

**So, here's the first chapter of One Death, Many Echoes.**

**Tell me what you thought!**

**Don't worry; the story will start to move faster now. I just needed to get through the first chapter!**

**Please review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter!**


	2. Arriving

The moment of blackness faded away as quickly as it appeared. For a moment, Harry seemed to be falling, and he saw a stone floor below him.

Then he smacked into the stone floor with a heavy thump. He groaned, squirming slightly to make sure nothing was broken. His head was pounding roughly, throbbing heavily with each of his heartbeats.

Harry opened his eyes at the sound of more groans. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw the last thing he expected.

Lying inches away from his face was Sirius. He flinched back, shocked at how close he was to him. Sirius looked like he had when he had seen him – _Merlin, had that only been a few minutes ago? _– using the Resurrection Stone.

Except that there was one difference.

He was breathing.

It seemed so simple to say it like that. He was breathing.

He was-

_-It meant so much-_

breathing.

It meant-

_-Could it be?-_

he was alive.

But it couldn't be. There's nothing that could bring back the dead. He'd heard it over and over. How many times had Dumbledore said that? Or anyone else for that matter? Harry had been annoyed with how many times he had heard that. Now, it seemed that it wasn't true. Sirius was lying before him…

No. It couldn't be.

Yet, Sirius was lying next to him, and he was breathing.

Harry turned his head, wincing when the movement sent a burst of deep pain reverberating through his head.

He could see his dad and his mum lying not too far away. Lupin was there, too.

And they were all breathing. He could see their chests moving in and out with each breath. Each breath brought air into their lungs.

That air meant that they were alive, that their bodies needed to air to… to survive.

As Harry, stunned into silence, stared at the people he had missed so many years, they began to wake up. Sirius was the first to blink open his eyes.

Harry saw him clench his eyes shut again, hard. It was clear that he had a headache. Harry sympathized. His head was pounding, too.

He groaned and slowly sat up.

"_Damn," _he muttered. _"I haven't hurt this much since I was alive."_

Harry stared at him. He had known Sirius was alive, but he hadn't expected those to be his first words after his… resurrection.

If it could be called that. For the first time since landing, Harry looked around. They were in Hogwarts.

Wait? What? Hogwarts was a battlefield. How could they be in the spotless castle…

Wait… What if… What if the others weren't alive? Maybe he was… dead. Maybe, where souls ended up after death was more like real life than Harry had ever thought.

Maybe all dead people breathed in that – this – place.

Sirius looked down. For a moment, he didn't seem to notice anything was wrong. Then he saw his chest slowly expanding in and out. Sirius's mouth dropped open, and he choked slightly.

"_Shit! I'm alive!"_

Harry couldn't help it; he smiled. He wasn't dead! For a second – only a second, he was ready to scream 'I'm still alive!' Another second later, that seemed like the dumbest thing he could possible do at that moment.

"S-sirius?" Harry breathed. Sirius turned quickly, jerking his head and winced when the movement obviously worsened his headache.

"Harry?" Sirius exclaimed. "Are you okay?" Sirius's words seemed to echo in the large room. Harry felt a flash of unfounded irritation at the question. Of course he wasn't okay! None of them were okay when they were lost, randomly, apparently in Hogwarts.

"Yeah," Harry snapped, even though he tried to say it calmly, brushing off Sirius's concern (and his own pain.) "How are you alive?" Harry winced at the question. That sounded a bit… sudden.

"No clue. Where are we? What happened?" Harry held up his hands as if in surrender.

"No idea. I still have my invisibility cloak and my wand, though." He did have them; in fact, he was lying on top of them. However, he really hadn't noticed until he had said that.

"Good," Sirius said. He reached into his own pocket. "I've got mine, but I doubt the others will have theirs."

"Why not?" Harry asked, failing to understand Sirius's logic.

"I fell through the veil holding my wand, so I kind of… brought it with me. The others didn't bring their wands with them when they died."

"Oh," Harry said, unsure of how to reply. He felt suddenly, inexplicably, shy around Sirius. Sirius had been dead.

Harry hadn't seen him for a few years, and he really didn't know what to say. It was stupid really but so much had changed.

Sirius had lived with all those he lost. Harry, on the other hand, had continued to lose more friends and family.

Things had changed, and that definitely impacted both of them.

Harry nearly groaned aloud. He didn't know what exactly to say to Sirius, and he'd only been gone for two years.

What would he do with his parents?

"Harry," Sirius said. "We need to wake the others."

Immediately, he walked over to James. Sirius calmly shook his shoulder, completely used to his presence. Harry shook his head, walking over to Remus.

He hesitated a second before placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking him gently. Remus blinked his eyes open slowly.

"Ouch," he groaned. "Harry? What happened? Where are we?"

"I have no idea," Harry said. "But, uh, you're all breathing." Remus looked up at him, shock and disbelief in his gaze.

"What?"

"Remus, you're breathing. So are Sirius and my mum and dad."

"How… how is that possible?"

"I don't know, and I don't know where we are." Remus sat up, slowly and looked around.

"It looks like…"

"Hogwarts," Harry interrupted. "But it can't be." Harry looked around himself, around what seemed to be the Great Hall.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw James and Lily slowly start to stand. It was obvious that they were in pain.

Suddenly, the doors to the Great Hall were flung open. For a moment, Harry was shocked that the heavy doors could even be moved that fast, but as soon as the figure stepped into the hall, the thought faded.

The figure froze, seeming as shocked as they were.

The man looked almost like Sirius. His hair was the same colour. The man's eyes were grey as well, but they were a few shades darker.

His build was slighter than Sirius's was. It reminded Harry of how thin Sirius had been while he was on the run.

But it was easy to tell that starvation wasn't the cause in this case. Instead, the man just seemed to be smaller.

"Regulus?" Harry heard Sirius breath. Immediately, his breath caught in his throat.

The man before them… was dead.

Of course, everyone around Harry was dead, so that shouldn't have been shocking.

The figure only stared for a few moments. Then, with rage clear in his silver eyes, he pulled out his wand and aimed it at Sirius.

"How dare you come here!" he spat. Sirius fumbled with his wand and pulled it out.

Harry bit his lip at Sirius's awkward motions. He was out of practice.

Harry whipped his wand out, too, but he didn't curse the man. He needed to know what was going on first.

"No reply, brother?" the man – Regulus, apparently – said with a cold laugh. "That's rare. You never have been able to hold your tongue."

"R –regulus?" Sirius asked quietly. "What's going on? Where's the battle?" That made Regulus pause, worry clear in his gaze.

"Are there others coming? Are more of your Death Eaters coming!" he demanded.

"_My_ Death Eaters?" Sirius asked, incredulously.

"You can't be playing that game, brother," Regulus said, laughing again. "Occillo!" Suddenly, there was a white colored beam darting at Sirius.

"Protego!" Sirius cried. The powerful spell slammed against Sirius's shield, dissolving both the spell and shield.

"Stupefy!" Harry cried. The man looked shocked that someone other than Sirius had attacked, but he still blocked the spell easily. As he turned, he saw Harry's face and froze.

"James? James Potter? What the hell are you playing at, brother?"

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**Hey, guys! Sorry that it's been so long! I've had so much stuff on my plate this summer.**

**Please review! What do you guys think?**

**Thanks to all my old reviewers!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!**


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